considerable and excellent a part of Holy Writ Aliqui sunt saith Aquinas qui non intelligunt quid cantatur 22 d. Q. 91. But suppose them read and not sung yet when they are read alternately one Verse by the Minister the other by the People the latter Verse will be no better than an inarticulate sound and confused noise to those who are unlearned and cannot read or to them who have not their Books at hand to go along with the Congregation as may be easily experimented in our London Congregations where this Form of Reading is commonly if not universally observed Another Custom or Manner of performing Divine Service which must not be omitted at least in Cathedrals is reading the second Service at the Altar A thing which to some seems out of the Churches Power to injoin which can only use it in commanding things proper to Edification For whilst the People sit in the lower part of the Quire they may hear the noise of the Minister's Voice who is reading the Service at the Altar but no distinction of sound as hath been often experimented And I 'd fain know whether the Practice of the Roman Church by performing their Service in an unknown Tongue or secret Whispers of a Priest can less tend to Edification or Instruction then to render it unintelligible by removing beyond the Ken or Compass of the Ear or by causing it to be uttered by the confused noise of a mixed Multitude Which I leave to those who are of highest esteem in the Church to judge of As also to take into their Consideration how far a Reformation of our Publick Service may be adviseable and necessary in regard to the Form of it in this and some other respects 2dly The next thing I have to offer is as to the Length and Burthen of it a Task which neither we nor our Forefathers were ever able to bear Were this grievance redrest that occasion of Scandal cast upon the Rulers and Dignitaries of the Church might be removed the Complaints of the weary and heavy laden Ministers of the Church silenced who may in the mean time be tempted perhaps to speak unadvisedly with their Lips and say Must we still like Issachar couch down under this heavy Burthen whilst such as impose it will scarce touch it with a tip of their own Fingers to ease others or to perform it for themselves Dicit enim Greg. habetur in decretis distinc 92. Can. insecta Romana Ecclesia constituo ut in sede hâc scil Romanâ Ecclesia sacri altaris ministri cantare non debeant Aquinus tells us that Gregory would have none who were ordained to Preach the Gospel to be imployed in the Office of Singing being as that Angelical Doctor observes a Work beneath them When we see the Masters of our Assemblies engage the meanest among 〈◊〉 Priests in the Celebration of the Divine Service of the Church by Reading or Singing of it we may conclude they think it either too mean or too hard for themselves As to the first there 's none of us have reason to think any Work of the Lord beneath them We can labour as in the Fire work in the Furnaces and Brick-kilns with great delight if we may thereby prepare for building the Lord's Temple (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Supra modum supra vires gravati sumus 2. Cor. 1.8 But our Task-masters have doubled the Tale of our Brick to that degree that though we work hard yet unless our Strength were the Strength of Stones we never can accomplish our Task and whoever shall fall short the Law hath provided it shall be made up with Stripes which will make deep furrows upon the Backs of those that shall happen to fall under the dintor Lash of it This Grievance in some Cities and Corporations by the Wealth and Kindness of the People hath been much provided against clubbing their Purses and providing Readers to discharge their Ministers of the Burthen of the Desk As knowing that they on whom necessity is laid and Woes denounced against them if they Preach not the Gospel will find work enough in the Pulpit But this were an unreasonable expectancy in Country Villages where the number of the People is small and their substance less Where in many places two or three Cures will scarce do more than afford Necessaries for an ordinary Subsistance or Livelihood nor provide larger Supplies than could answer the reasonable Desires of that contented Man viz. Sit mihi mensa tripes concha puri salis toga quae defenderit frigus licet crassa queat Yet so vast and opulent are the Revenues of the Church that as there needs no other Arguments to prove the incomparable Charity and Bounty of our Ancestors So also a Sufficiency yea a Redundancy for the Support of the Office and Work of the Ministry But so disproportionate hath the distribution of them been that whilst some have lived delicately and fared deliciously every day others can scarce find a Competency to furnish their Tables with daily Bread And is it not a Grievance that the most difficult and constant Labour should meet with the least Encouragement 'T is scarce credible to relate to what Sums the Acruments and Perquisites of the Bishopricks in England did amount to upon their Restoration with Charles II. Had not immense Treasures descended into their Coffers the many extravagant Works of State and Magnificence Vain-glory some think Acts of Piety and Charity could never have exhausted such unaccountable Sums as are by Dr. C. computed out of them He tells us that Dr. Juxon Arch-bishop of Canterbury gave or expended in Building Repairing Redemption of Captives c. 48000 l. Sterling besides 16000 l. abated to the Tenants Gilbert Sheldon Bishop of London afterwards Arch-bishop of Canterbury gave and bestowed in such like expences besides his common Disbursements and what he left to his Heirs and Executors 40000 l. Brian Duppa late Bishop of Winchester in such like Charges together with the Abatements of Fines to his Tenants 46000 l. Dr. Fruen Arch-bishop of York 15000 l. Dr. Cousins Bishop of Durham 44000 l. Dr. Warner Bishop of Rochester 30000 l. Besides the Building of a Colledge for poor Clergy-mens Widows which cost 7200 l. which was besides endowed by him with ample Provisions besides 50 l. per Annum Rent-charge for maintaining of a Chaplain Nor were the Deans and Chapters less liberal in proportion Insomuch that the several Sums when put together amount to no less than 443000 l. besides the Monies they spent in their Splendid way of living together with their Equipage and Retinue not to mention their personal and real Estates they left behind them to agrandize their Posterities and to make their Names great But whilst the Prelates wallowed in their overgrown Wealth how many laborious Ministers lay swelkt and macerated with the Heat and Burthen imposed upon them in the Worship of God Their Task being over
(a) Hegâ—sippus in his relation of the Life of St. James saith that he only was admitted into the Sanctuary because he was clad in Linnen but this Work is falsly ascribed to that Author Altar This is one of those Hairs which is run through the Sieve of the Reformation which * Let us hear the Opinion of that reverend and worthy Man Mr. Fox in our present case who gives us an account of one Blomfeild an Informer who threatned a good Man and Minister for not wearing a Surplice in his publick Ministration and that he would put him forth or deliver him up to the Officers as is there said Wherefore saith he 't is pity such Baits of Popery are left to the Enemies to take Christians in God take them away or ease us from them for God knoweth they be the Cause of much Blindness and Strife amongst Men So that this Rite hath been accounted an ancient Nuisance in the Church Acts and Monuments Vol. 3. p. 764. Edit 1684. hath choakt some and made others keck and strain in drinking down the sincere Milk The Reformers of our Church those Evangelical Fisher-men or rather Fishers of Men being not so stanch as other Churches who reformed from Popery though fit to knit their Net of somewhat a wider shale than they insomuch that several of the Fry spawned in Tiber have run through the Masks of it which Roman Lampreys several wise and good Men have thought to have a poysonous Sting of Superstition run through the Back of them Jewel Bishop of Salisbury had as judicious a Palate as another yet profest he found the same Flavour who in a Letter dated Febr. 8. 1566. wishes that the Vestments together with all the Remnants of Popery might be thrown out of their Churches and of the Minds of the People and laments the Queen's fixedness to them Bishop Hooper that constant Martyr refused to be consecrated Bishop unless he might be dispensed with as to the Attire viz. The white Rocket c. as Mr. Fox stiles it beseeching the King either to discharge him of his Bishoprick or else to dispense with him for such Ceremonial Orders Which the King did and wrote to the Arch-bishop Acts and Monuments p. 120 2d Vol. 3d. Vol. and indemnified him for omitting and Licensed him to let pass certain Rites and Ceremonies offensive to his Conscience Sands Arch-bishop of York gives them no better Character than what the aforesaid Bishop of Salisbury had Engraven upon them Contenditur de Vestibus Papisticis utendis vel non utendis sâ—d deus dabit his quoque finem Disputes concerning the Popish Vestments are on Foot whether they shall be used or not but God saith he will put an end to those things Zanchy also in his Epistle to Queen Elizabeth tell her That most of the Bishops had rather leave their Offices than admit of such Garments Horne Bishop of Winchester in his Letter dated 16. July 1565. writes of the Act concerning the Habits with great regret and expresses some hopes that it might be repealed next Session of Parliament if the Popish Party did not hinder it And seems to be in a doubt See Burnet's Letters containing an Account of his Observations in Switzerland c. whether he should conform himself to it or not Upon which he desires the Advice of Bullinger And in many Letters wrote on that subject it is asserted that both Cranmer and Ridley intended to procure an Act for abolishing the Habits Grindal in a Letter dated 27. August 1566. writes that all Bishops which had been beyond Sea dealt with the Queen to let the Matter of the Habits fall And must they still stand to grieve the Consciences of good Men scandalize those that are without drive out those that are within Especially considering we have a Prince that is willing to compassionate the Infirmities of the Weak and Bishops who are ready to remove the Nuisances of the Church could we but be so happy as to be delivered from the Strivings of some over-formal People who are as obstreperous for these things as the Ephesians for their Diana Whereas these Garments no more than Meats commend us to God for neither if we wear them are we the better neither if we near them not are we the worse Some stumble at these Rites of wearing Linnen Garments as supposing them originally derived and borrowed from the Customs of the Heathens Suetonius whose Priests used such a kind of Dress when they appeared before their Gods In linteâ relligiosâ veste Sacra Isidis propalam celebrate Non discolor ulli Ante aras cultus velantur Corporaline Sil. Ital. Alba decent Cererem Ovid. Evolvam busto jam numen gentibus Isin Etâ— tectam lino spargam per vulgus Osirin Juvenal calls the Priests Grex liniger And though every thing is not to be rejected which the Heathens used for then perhaps we must wear no Garments at all Yet God commanded the Jews 12 Deut. 31. Not to do so to the Lord their God that is as the Heathens did And Cajetane from thence observes that God plainly forbid them to Worship him with such Rites and Ceremonies as the Heathens worshipt their Deities His Words are Praecipitur ad literam ne colant deum similibus ritibus Ceremoniis quos servarunt Ethnici Colentes Elohe suos Others are scandalized at them because these Rites and Habits are used by the Papists or rather abused Nec cum haereticis Commune quicquam habere voluerunt Magd. Cent. 4. Cas 6. Col. As to these Arguments I shall only say Valeant in quantum valere possunt Yet sure they may have Tincture enough to colour the Requests we make to our Imposers that they would consider how they put a Stumbling-block to those that are weak that they would not use the Sword of their Authority to the wounding the Consciences of their Brethren for this is a Sin against Christ which may supersede all other Arguments that might be alledged and pleaded in redress of this Grievance hoping our Superiors are of the same Mind with St. Paul that if the Injunction of this Rite as to Habit make our Brethren to offend they would never injoin it whilst the World stands And that for the future the Righteousness of the Saints may be a sufficient Qualification for the Ministerial Office though they should appear in no other clean Linnen to worship in 19 Rev. 8. For the fine Linnen is the Righteousness of the Saints Of the Cross in Baptism II. THE Sign of the Cross in Baptism This is a Stone of Stumbling and Rock of Offence A retained Rite in our Reformation from Rome which other Protestant Churches thought fit to reject as a Superstitious Ceremony and Popish unnecessary addition to the Holy Sacrament of Baptism nor were they to be blamed when the end for which the Primitive Christians in several Cases made use of it was ceased They living among those Heathens
in doubt To which methinks the Scripture replies There be three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which cannot be interpreted for a bare Unity of Consent because it seems contradistinguished from it and which is mentioned in the following words there be three that bear Record upon Earth the Spirit the Water and the Blood and these three agree in one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Besides that I may not be suspected guilty of Socinianism I will beg the Reader 's Patience to dispense with a small Digression in giving some little account of that Faith which is in me and reason of it He that is to be worshipt with Divine Honour is God but Christ is so to be worshipt and therefore I believe him to be God The major Proposition is built upon the tryed Foundation of a Divine Law viz. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Besides when St. John fell down to worship the Angel he forbad it and the reason was because he was his fellow (a) 10 Acts 25. and as Peter was coming in Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipt him But Peter took him up saying stand up I my self also am a Man Creature Now this reason which the Angel gave was good or it was not if it was good then a Quatetenus ad omne valet consequentia If it had not been good which I suppose none will be so bold as to assert then St. John might have reply'd Though you be a Creature yet you may be worshipt for Christ was so and yet he is not only allowed but commanded to be worshipt And let all the Angels worship him 1 Heb. 6. which words so convince Socinus that in his disputation with some Arrians in the Hall of Paulicovius he cried out Tam certus sum Christum esse adorandum quam me pileum in manu habere But that which is a further Ground and Pillar to this Faith which is in me is the Parity and Likeness of that Honour which is given to the Father and the Son And for this purpose it was that all Judgment was committed to the Son namely that all Men might honour the Son as they honour the Father From whence I argue thus that betwixt a Creature and the great Creator there is an infinite disproportion for one is finite and the other infinite but there is no such disproportion betwixt God the Father and his Son Ergo. The Minor is proved thus where Objects are infinitely disproportionate and beneath one and other there the same Honour and Worship is not to be paid and performed But the same Honour and Worship is to be given to the Son which is paid to the Father therefore they are not so different and disproportionate for shall we offer that to God that we will not offer to our Prince Shall we pay the same Reverence to him that grindeth at the Mill which is due to him that sits upon the Throne Shall we worship the Creature with the same Worship which we give to the Creator Wherefore if God command us to worship the Son as we honour the Father we may account it no robbery to esteem him co-equal to him and co-essential with him which would be impossible where there is an infinite distance as there is betwixt God and the most exalted Creature in Heaven or Earth Yet to have this Article of Faith spun out and wyar-drawn into too many and nice Propositions by a single Doctor of the Church and then imposed upon it to all Generations upon pain of Damnation seems too strict an Imposition upon the Faith of Christians 22. q. 1. art 10. R. ad 3. an Aquinas saith it was not composed per modum Symboli sed per modum Doctrinae not with a purpose to impose it upon others but to declare his own Belief Dr. Taylour saith Lib. of Proph. p. 46. that many of the ancient Bishops who did believe this thing yet did not like the Nicety and Curiosity of expressing it yea many wise Personages think the Church had been more happy if she had not been in some sense constrained to alter the simplicity of her Faith and make it more curious and articulate insomuch that he had need be a very subtle Man to understand the very Words of the new Determinations When we stand upon the brink of this great Mystery for without Controversie it is no less it cannot but make us cry out Oh the height depth length and bredth of it How unsearchable is this Divine Essence this Being which is past finding out And tho' with that ancient * Tertullian Father I have so far given up my Faith to the Conduct of Divine Writ as to say Propose me any thing out of this Book and require whether I will believe it or no and seem it never so incomprehensible to humane Reason I will subscribe it with Hand and Heart as knowing no demonstration can be stronger than this Chilling p. 376. The Relig. of Protestants Credo quia impossibile To believe what the Scripture saith though I cannot untie every knot and solve by my feeble Reason every 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in it Yet I think such things ought to be stated with Modesty and urged with Candor upon the Consciences of Men. I believe that he which serves God with his whole Heart that honours the divine Being in whom he is sensible he lives moves and hath his Being that out of a Principle of Love and Duty observes his Laws both of the first and second Table so far as he is able he that fears God and works Righteousness shall be accepted of him though he should not have so clear and distinct a Notion of the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity or have a settled Faith and Belief of every Proposition expressed in the Systeme composed by (o) If he was the Author of it Athanasius but not designed as some affirm to be the Standard of the Churches Faith viz. That there are not three Lords but one Lord that the Son is of the Father alone the Holy Ghost of the Father and of the Son that none of the Persons are before or after each other These are nice Speculations and intricate Propositions And that every single and well-meaning Christian must perish everlastingly that believes them not is a Censure too uncharitable to offer to the Church or to be used by the Church And that whoever will be saved must thus think of the Trinity Hosius the Bishop of Corduba speaking of this subject saith That it is a Matter so nice so obscure and intricate that it was neither to be explicated by the Clergy or understood by the People Besides there be several difficult Propositions concerning that great this Mystery of Godliness Is not this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ manifest in the
Flesh and Incarnation of our Saviour viz. That Christ is one not by Conversion of the Codhead into Flesh but by taking the Manhood into God one altogether not by confusion of Substance It ought to be considered concerning Athanasius's Creed how many People understand it not Lib. of Proph. p. 54. I confess saith that Author I cannot see the moderate Sentence and gentleness of Charity in this Preface and Conclusion as then was in the Nicene Creed nothing there but damnation and perishing everlastingly unless the Article of the Trinity be believed as it is there with Curiosity and minute Particulars explained Ibid. pag. 54. but by unity of Person And that this c. is the Catholick Faith which except a Man believe he cannot be saved Which Propositions should they be repeated to many a simple and yet sincere Christian they would seem little less to them than Sampson's Ridle and shall we deny Salvation to those who have not an explicite Faith of those things they understand not If Water ascends higher than the Fountain from whence it springs the Motion must be ascribed to force If Faith should ascend beyond Knowledge if such may be called Faith 't is no better than force or fancy to compel that to be confessed with the Mouth which is not believed with the Heart because it never entred into the Head Doth it not therefore concern the Fathers of the Church to consider now that they have a Price put into their Hands whether this be not to make the Gate of Heaven narrower than God hath made it which is already so streight that alas there be too few that find it Of Regeneration by the Spirit ANother thing which might justly deserve the Notice of our Reverend Brethren and Fathers of the Church is the Doctrine of Regeneration by the Spirit which I take to be an act of Grace upon the Heart (a) Unto whom now I send thee to open their Eyes and to turn them from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan unto God c. Acts 26.17 renewing that Image which was drawn in Righteousness and true Holiness But alas How have we effac'd it and sought out many Inventions in the Croud of which we lost our Integrity God had at first imbarkt our Innocency in a Vessel sufficiently built to have secured the Cargo and finally to have brought the Soul safe to its desirable Port I mean Heaven he having put on board with it that which might with due watchfulness and care have secured it viz. A posse non peccandi But hapning where two Seas met I mean Satan's Policy and Man's Frailty or facile Disposition being too gentle and easie to be intreated by his Temptations he suffered Shipwrack of a good Conscience losing that which the whole World was not competent to redeem For alas What can be given in exchange for the Soul But God would not suffer the Sea to swallow such a Prize and therefore when he saw Man labouring for Life in the midst of those mighty Waves those Waters of Iniquity he cast out a Plank Post naufragium tabulam by which he came safe to Land he set up this Bankrupt again with a fresh Stock putting him into a Capacity and State of Salvation by a redeemer but upon such Terms and Conditions as he thought fit to appoint and prescribe viz. That unless we believe we should not be saved except we be regenerate and born again we should not enter into the Kingdom of God But as the Wind blows where it listeth so the Spirit works these Graces when and where it pleaseth observing the Rule and Method he hath pleased to prescribe to himself viz. As he hath chosen us in Christ Jesus And therefore we cannot affirm that wherever the Means is used that the End ex opere operato is certainly attained especially in such subjects as are altogether incapable of it as I take Infants to be of Regeneration upon the Administration of Baptism 3 Q. 71.2 Unless it be said of Regeneration as Aquinas saith concerning the Infant 's being Catechiz'd before it be Baptiz'd Accommodat eis Ecclesia aliorum cor ut credant aliorum aures ut audiant intellectum ut per alios instruantur But he that is regenerated by a Proxy will be saved so too But suppose they be renew'd yet this Operation or Work of the Spirit is much in the dark there are no visible Footsteps or Impressions left behind it by which we can trace the Goings of the Almighty no more than that of a Serpent upon a Rock a Bird in the Air or Ship in the Sea if there be any Work of God upon the Soul of the Infant 't is very cryptical 't is hid from our Eyes We may say as the Lord said to Job He hath made a Cloud the garment of it 38 Job 9. and thick darkness a swadling Band for it If any shall say that though the Child in such tender Age be not a capable subject of the Act yet it may be of the Habit Thus it is accounted a Rational Creature though it cannot for the present exert and shew forth the Faculties which are potentially in it But no sooner doth the Child grow up towards Years of Maturity but those Seminal and Radical Powers of their own accord pullulate and spring up into Act the Rose which seminally or potentially laid dormant in the Root of the Plant of its own accord buds and blossoms upon the approaching Heat and Influence of the Sun If the Habit of Regeneration were sown in Baptism would it not in the Spring of Youth begin to bud and blossom and bring forth Almonds I mean Acts sutable to the Nature of it Whereas we experimentally find no more averseness or reprobacy to that which is good in an unbaptized Person who never was baptismally regenerated nor received for God's own Child by Adoption than in one baptized according to the Ordinance of God and Appointment of the Church But supposing the Subject capable of this Divine Impression yet we do not see that God doth let his Seal or that they are sealed up to the Day of Redemption ex opere operato or actual Administration of Baptism For wherever the Work of Regeneration is wrought the Soul is renewed in all its Faculties such were some of you But ye are washed but ye are sanctified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God But all that are Baptismally washed are not sanctified and regenerate for we find in adult Persons that those who were filthy before continue to be so still Nay as to those very Persons who in the Judgment of Charity do not ponere obicem yet we cannot see any immediate Cause to return Thanks for its actual Regeneration by the Holy Spirit till we find some Demonstration or Evidence more than the bare opus operatum or Administration of the Baptismal Rite that the Person is entred into the Womb